Method for Establishing Cool Flames and Flameless Fuel Oxidation with Zero Emissions Using Non-Equilibrium Plasma Activation

Current engines and combustors run at high temperature, which leads to problems of engine knocking, soot and NOx emissions, and difficulty in combustion control. On the other hand, low-temperature combustion and fuel oxidation below 1000 K is typically too inaccessible or unstable to be used for engines and fuel processing. The novelty of the present invention is that by using oxygen-rich oxidizer stream and non-equilibrium plasma — which creates new chemical species such as singlet oxygen, ozone, ions, and intermediate radicals — stable, low-temperature cool flames and flameless combustion can be established to enable fast, low-temperature fuel oxidation in a broad range of pressures (0.1 to 50 atm). Due to the low flame temperature (500 K to 900 K), no soot emissions and no NOx emissions are formed in the cool flames and flameless combustion region. Moreover, the new cool flame regime allows rapid fuel (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) decomposition and partial oxidation to form clean and valuable small-molecule fuels such as C2H4, CH2O, CH3HCO, and CH4 at low cost and high efficiency.